Yowane Haku
Yowane Haku (弱音ハク) is an officially recognized derivative. The term "Derivative" is used here to describe a fanmade Vocaloid character that is based on an already existing character. History Haku was initially made as a representation of songs that use Hatsune Miku but ended up sounding awful. In such cases, the makers of such music would then proceed to whine about how their work never received attention and later moved on to whine when criticism stated their work was dull and boring, or was posted quite late when few people were on Nico Nico Douga. Haku became popular and her creator Caffein later established other characters following the same procedures, each representing a different aspect of failure within VOCALOID culture. Concept Some fans have tried to give her an actual voice using Miku's voice and manipulating it to sound depressed, through methods like down pitching her. These were later also switched to the Miku Appends as some such as Miku Append Dark produced the desired results much easier or a manipulation of MEIKO's voicebank. When speaking about songs and PVs that feature Haku singing, it has been pointed out by some fans that if one succeeds at producing a "bad" song, then no failure was met in the process. There are a small number of fans who disapprove of such songs because it can be considered a contradiction to the point of Haku's existence being based on failure. This in particular is also aimed at the Haku songs that end up sounding "good" as Haku was meant to be far from this ideal. However, whatever songs that come out in her name are subject to the interpretation of the producer, whether they follow Haku's depiction of failure or not. Etymology Her name is taken from Yowane, meaning negative sayings/thoughts and Haku, roughly translated as utter. Her first and last name make a play on words "yowane-(wo)-haku" (弱音(を)吐く), meaning to say negative thoughts or to show white feather. Her white hair is based on her given name as well, which has the same pronunciation as the word for white (白/''haku''). She is referred to as a "VOYAKILOID", a term for derivatives representing failure. In Japanese, ぼやく (boyaku) means grouchy or to grumble and complain, thus VOYAKILOID is a combination of boyaku and vocaloid, giving ボヤキロイド (boyakiroido). Appearance Haku's design is drastically different from Hatsune Miku. She has white hair as her name suggests, though popularized as grey. It is as long as her body and styled into a ponytail held by a bow that is striped black and purple. She has a stray hair at the top of her head, nose length bangs, and side locks. Her eyes tend to slope downward and there is a hint of bags under them. On her left upper arm is a red tattoo saying "DTM", which stands for 'Desktop Music', which is what vocal synthesizers are normally created for. Her top is grey in color and sleeveless, the style is bare midriff with low cleavage covered by a purple tie. The rest of her attire is black with purple trim. She wears detached sleeves, and bell bottom pants with short white boots. On her left side is a belt strap. Her headset microphone points upward away from her mouth. Going by Caffein's character sheet commentary, Haku's early design had a tinge of grey skin, but it was not well received. Her red eyes were not an attempt to reflect albinism, but merely inspired while watching a Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. music video on Nico Nico Douga; the character named Major has red eyes.Pixiv: 弱音ハク設定画（2010年版） Relations *Hatsune Miku: Source of inspiration Marketing Haku is one of the derivatives of Hatsune Miku that became officially recognized by Crypton Future Media, the publisher of the Character Vocal Series. The other derivatives official recognized by Crypton are Miku Hachune, Neru Akita, Meiko Sakine, and Tako Luka. Because of her popularity, merchandise of Haku appears alongside the Piapro Characters. Merchandise Official licensed Haku figurines have been produced: a Nendoroid Puchi, a scale model and a plush. Publications In メーカー非公式 初音みっくす (Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix), Haku makes a cameo appearance as a student of Akita Neru (who is a teacher), and again drinking sake with MEIKO. She appears in chapters 2, 3, and chapter 16. Video Games In the rhythm game, Hatsune Miku Project DIVA-, Haku is an available character. If the player has not chosen her for a long time, she exhibits her trademark moody mannerisms. In Project Mirai, unlike the Diva series, Haku does not appear as a playable character. She does, however, appear in the game's video of Aku No Meshitsukai. Hakupuchi.jpg|Haku Nendoroid puchi figure Yowane Haku PD arcade.jpg|Haku as seen in the videogame Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- Arcade Haku_Yowane_TinierMe.jpg|Yowane Haku "Selfy" (Hatsune Miku x @Games/TinierMe Collab) Trivia *While she was conceptualized to originally be a Miku user, Caffein states it is not a problem to think of her as a failing Vocaloid, or a co-worker, or the lady at the small candy shop etcetera. References External links * CAFE-LOG: Caffein (Warning: Some images NSFW) * Nico Nico Pedia